Vivaldi, Divina Stella

The interplay of light and shadow in Vivaldi's sacred works

Vivaldi, Divina Stella

The interplay of light and shadow in Vivaldi's sacred works

Adagio spiccato, extract from Concerto grosso in G minor (RV 578) (extract from
L’Estro armonico)

Longe mala, umbrae, terrores
Motet for voice, strings and continuo in G minor (RV 629)
I. Aria: Longe mala, umbrae, terrores (Allegro)
II. Recitative: Recedite, nubes et fulguras
III. Aria : Descende o coeli vos (Largo)
IV. Alleluja

Concerto for strings in G minor RV 141
I. Allegro
II. Andante molto
III. Allegro molto

Sum in medio tempestatum
Motet for voice, strings and continuo in F major (RV 632)
I. Aria: Sum in medio tempestatum
II. Recitative: Quid Ergo faciam
III. Aria: Semper maesta –
IV. Alleluja

Concerto for strings in F major RV 156
I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Allegro

In turbato mare irato
Motet for voice, strings and continuo in G major (RV 627)
I. Aria: In turbato mare irato (Allegro)
II. Recitative: Splende serena
III. Aria: Resplende, bella (Larghetto)
IV. Alleluja

Blandine de Sansal, mezzo soprano
Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu
Franck-Emmanuel Comte, harpsichord and musical direction
Reynier Guerrero, violin
Sayaka Shinoda, violin
André Costa, viola
Aude Walker-Viry, cello
Nicolas Janot, doublebass
Morgan Marquié, theorbo and guitar
Franck Dusseux, light creation

 

While our contemporary era is unfortunately still full of crises and threats, the decade in which Vivaldi composed the works on our programme has nothing to envy the present day. The dark events of the 1720s meant that Vivaldi's century could not yet be described as the ‘Age of Enlightenment’. The upheavals of the War of Succession to the Spanish throne - a veritable bloodbath throughout Europe - the still numerous epidemics of plague and smallpox, and the violence orchestrated by various tyrannies, made it a time of insidious anxiety.

Vivaldi's motets, composed for the most part for the daughters of the Pietà - angels of light on earth - are the musical embodiment of these hopes. The storms and gusts of sound that abound in these lyrical miniatures, metaphors for the turbulence that overwhelms Europe, precede the appearance of a comforting light. For in the convulsions of restless nature, the Divina Stella, the divine star that enlightens humanity, is already shining. This chiaroscuro that inhabits the vibrant, theatrical works in our selection teaches us patience and confidence in the coming of better days, when music will guide troubled souls.

Resplende, bella
Divina stella
Et non timebo
Mortis horrores

Shine on, bella
Divine star
And I won't be afraid
Of the horrors of death

PICTURES

CALENDAR

15 oct. 2025

Chapelle de la Trinité
Lyon (France)
Vivaldi, Divina Stella

Creation in Lyon, at the Chapelle de la Trinité, on 15 October 2025.

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